Chapter 05
Tegan padded through the hallways of the TARDIS, after the events on Manussa the Doctor had taken them to some marvellous sights. The Master Bakers of Barastabon was a particular favourite. No monsters trying to kill them, no corridors or ventilation shafts, just calm, friendly fun and cake.
"So where are we going this time?"
"Ah Tegan there you are." Tegan watched him, wondering if she needed to grab the sides of the console soon. The Doctor had his glasses on and appeared to be in deep concentration, often a sign that something was going to go catastrophically wrong.
"What's gone wrong now?" She asked critically.
The Doctor looked up at her. "Why so negative Tegan?"
Tegan looked at him. "You've got glasses on Doctor."
"Have I?" He pulled them off and looked at them. "So I have," he tucked them into a pocket. "No problems, no."
"So where are we heading?" She crossed her arms.
"Earth, according to the Doctor. Is this what you were looking for Doctor?" Nyssa asked as she walked into the room holding what looked like a scarf of some odd woven material.
"And before you ask Tegan this is a tinclavic polymer scarf, very useful among other things at blocking psychic radiation, also with the right manipulation it can become malleable and then back to several thousand times the strength of steel," the Doctor explained with a smile.
"All combined with a softness akin to your silk worms' textured silk and a thermal efficiency of 5.8 on the Vaultan scale," Nyssa finished.
"Very good Nyssa yes," the Doctor grinned.
"And why do we need a scarf that can do all of that?" Tegan looked between the Doctor and the TARDIS console, hoping for answers.
The Doctor looked up at her from the TARDIS console. "We don't but we're going to see someone who might."
"Someone?" Tegan asked.
"The Doctor says he wanted to see a friend," Nyssa answered.
"You have friends? Who don't want to see you dead?" The Doctor gave her one of his 'looks'.
-/ - \\-
On a track some ways outside Ottery St Catchpole a blue box parted the space time continuum, the noise it made echoing throughout the general area, managing to make a noise without so much as disturbing anyone that might be in the vicinity.
A moment later the door opened and a man strode out taken in a deep breath of the country air, and jammed a hat onto his head.
"Ah perfect, Britain in the summer time. Come on you two," he shouted into the box.
Tegan followed Nyssa outside where the Doctor was waiting and looked around.
It looked like Earth, smelt like it too. It reminded her of the times she spent with her grandfather Verney.
"Well?" The Doctor was looking at her in that intense way.
"It's Earth," Tegan said after a moment.
"Thank you for your vote of confidence Tegan." The Doctor looked around, his cream coat flapping in the slight breeze. "This way," he pointed towards the slight incline.
Tegan looked at Nyssa and shrugged. "I wonder who this friend is."
"All the Doctor said was that he was a young friend that he's known for some time," Nyssa said.
"Which could mean anything knowing the Doctor." Tegan looked ahead at the path they were walking on.
"Beautiful day, there's our destination," the Doctor said when they reached the top of the small rise.
Tegan wasn't quite sure what to make of it; an architect's nightmare came to mind. It reminded her somewhat of Castrovalva in the way the storeys of the house had been stacked, with seemingly no regard for style or gravity for that matter.
"It's a curious design," Nyssa said beside her, though Tegan could tell even she shared some of the Doctor's wonder looking at the house.
On the gate they were slowly walking up toward it read The Burrow.
"Alright Doctor who is this friend and why does his house look like it was designed by MC Escher?" Tegan asked.
"He doesn't live here Tegan he's staying here," he said as he walked up to the door, rapping his knuckles on the door.
Tegan could hear a variety of footsteps inside before the door was wrenched open by a plump woman with fiery red hair.
"Hello…" She looked between them.
"Hello there, I was wondering if I could see Harry." The Doctor flashed the woman one of his best smiles. Which usually resulted in them getting locked up.
"Harry?" Her eyes narrowed staring at them.
"Yes, Harry Potter," the Doctor smiled at her.
"You know Harry?" She looked carefully at the Doctor.
"Yes, tell him it's the Doctor, oh," he looked at Tegan and Nyssa. "These are my friends, Nyssa and Tegan."
"Hi," Tegan smiled, but the woman was still looking at them coolly.
"Hello," Nyssa said with a smile.
"Just…just a moment." She closed the door, but it didn't meet with the door frame.
"Not very friendly Doctor," Tegan looked at him and wondered if he'd got the year wrong.
"She's just careful Tegan," the Doctor answered.
"She seems protective," Nyssa observed.
Behind the door Tegan could here the woman shout. "Fred, go upstairs and get Harry, ask him to come down here, George fire-call your father."
"Yes mum," said a similar pair of voices.
Tegan could hear more thundering of footsteps up and down the strange structure that passed for a house.
As Tegan was beginning to count the boots that were piled up in a corner under the eaves, trying mentally to calculate how many people lived there based on the amount of shoes, the door opened once more.
"Harry this man said he knows you."
Tegan looked over the boy, he was wearing a neat shirt and jacket that had obviously been chosen to complement and contrast with his green eyes. His hair was messy and…they met eyes briefly, he seemingly doing the same to her, Nyssa and the Doctor.
"Doctor?" He asked in an unsure tone.
"Yes, hello Harry, I know I might look a little different…" Harry rushed forward met the Doctor in a hug.
"You always say that!" He laughed as he stepped back.
"Yes, I probably do," he stepped aside. "These are my friends, Nyssa, and Tegan."
"Hi," Tegan said as Nyssa also greeted him.
The woman standing behind Harry suddenly brightened (slightly), Tegan felt like telling her that yes, she had seen her watching them like a croc watched its prey.
"Where are my manners come in, come in." She beckoned into the house. She led them through the house to the kitchen, Tegan was sure she saw a pot washing itself, but they continued out to the back of the house where some chairs were set up overlooking the backyard.
"Now, can I get you all something to drink?" She barely waited for an answer before ducking back into the kitchen.
-/
"How'd you know I was here Doctor?" Harry asked in a low voice as soon as Mrs Weasley was gone, the Doctor had always met him at the Dursleys, and he hadn't even known where he was going to until he'd been rescued.
"More to the point how did you get here?" The Doctor asked.
"In Mr Weasley's flying car," Harry explained.
"Flying what?" The young girl, Nyssa asked.
"Car," Harry said simply, then prompted by Tegan's raised eyebrow added. "A Ford Anglia."
"Very retro, you have some interesting friends Doctor," Tegan said looking between the younger Harry and the Doctor.
"Yes, thank you Tegan."
"You didn't answer my question Doctor, I thought maybe…no." Harry began.
"No, no what Harry?" His voice took on a worried tone.
"Nothing, so…?" Harry started to ask again.
"Ah…" The Doctor looked around. "I wonder where Mrs Wesley is with the drinks,"
"There." Harry pointed at him. "You did it again!"
"What did he do?" Tegan asked.
"She didn't tell you her name. Unless you talked after you dropped me at the station," Harry reasoned.
"Ah, well you see Harry you have told me, just not yet," he said awkwardly.
-/
"What?" Tegan looked as puzzled as Harry. So it wasn't just the people he travelled with that the Doctor had this affect on, the people he met frequently he also did this to.
"Well, you have told me already, just," he paused in a huff. "If only I'd got rid of the randomiser instead of over-riding it," he sighed. Harry looked over at her.
"Don't worry, he goes on like this sometimes," Tegan said with a smile.
"I know, talking to himself, long complicated explanations, and according to him being locked up," Harry said in a calm way that Tegan knew he'd listened to the Doctor stories before.
Tegan laughed. "Good to know we're not the only ones."
"I still don't get it Doctor," Harry queried.
"Well, you see Harry, I've met you before, though in the future, you won't recognise me, but I've met you now, which will be the past when you meet me, a different me in the future."
-/
Harry closed his eyes, he wondered if he wrote it down it'd make sense.
"Don't you see? The Doctor has already met you Harry where you told him about this, but it's in the Doctor's past. So the next time you meet the Doctor, in your personal future will be the meeting the Doctor has already had with you," Nyssa explained.
"That's absolutely correct Nyssa," the Doctor praised "temporal theory is something of a complicated science, especially in practical real world events."
"So shouldn't you know everything already then?" Harry asked.
"Not at all, one meeting, it's a lifetime ago." He looked off into the backyard and further to the orchard.
"Here we are dears, a nice cool drink." She said waving her wand, the five cups flipped themselves over and the jug poured four streams of liquid into the cups.
-/
"I'm not even going to ask," Tegan said as she took the cup.
"Some sort of tele-psychic physical projection?" Nyssa postulated.
"Magic," the Doctor announced, taking a sip. "Mmm, this pumpkin juice is wonderfully fresh Mrs Weasley."
"Thank you Doctor," she said beaming a careful smile at him.
How did the Doctor manage to go so quickly from being a suspicious guy at the door to being smiled at like a favourite son? Tegan wondered as she took a cup herself. She wasn't sure about pumpkin juice, but it was a warm day and as there wasn't anything else on offer. Plus considering some of the things she'd tasted in their travels, 'pumpkin juice' was hardly bad.
"Now, Mrs Weasley, could I perhaps liberate Harry from you for a little while?" Asked the Doctor.
"Liberate?" She continued to look at him carefully.
"Just a turn around the gardens as they used to say," the Doctor explained.
She looked to Tegan and Nyssa.
"He means he wants to chat alone to Harry," Tegan explained.
"Harry?" Mrs Weasley looked to him.
"It's okay Mrs Weasley," Harry reassured "it's been…some time since we chatted."
"If you're sure dear. Stay in view of the Burrow dear," she said absently.
"Yes Mrs Weasley," Harry said pushing himself out of his chair.
-/
"I don't suppose you can tell me about what's going to happen?" Harry asked the Doctor once they were out of ear shot of the house.
"No, no, no. Against the laws of time Harry, knowing one's personal future. What were you saying before, something that could have prevented me from seeing you?" The Doctor asked.
"Nothing, this house elf, thinks I'm in danger," Harry looked up at the Doctor. "Am I?" He looked up at the Doctor's young face, he was younger, now that he was older. Though from what the Doctor had said that didn't mean anything, regeneration was random, except in certain situations, whatever that meant.
"Are you what Harry?" The Doctor asked.
"In danger?" Harry said and then amended. "More danger?"
"I don't know," the Doctor said with a sigh.
Harry stopped walking. "Really?" Harry pressed.
"I don't, I don't remember much of our previous meeting, little things, but, memory is an odd thing, my last regeneration was a trying experience," the Doctor explained awkwardly, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"I used to do that." The Doctor looked to him, curiously. "Pinch my nose like that, Hermione says that I do it when I'm stressed."
"Ah, yes Hermione," the Doctor mused. "Your rather intelligent friend, very observant."
"Yeah, she was really surprised that I'd read all those extra books you gave me," Harry explained.
"That reminds me," the Doctor pulled the scarf out of his pocket. "Happy birthday."
Harry accepted the scarf running his hands over it as the Doctor described in brilliant detail what it was and where it came from. It was weird, soft, yet he could feel the strength in it. "Thank you Doctor."
"Tell me more about this house elf" the Doctor began asking in eagerness "and how you got here in this flying car?"
-/ - \\-
"Have you known Harry long?"
Before Tegan had a chance to say anything Nyssa opened her mouth, being so marvellously truthful. "We've never met, the Doctor has though, he just decided to come to see him."
"Oh, so the Doctor, he knows our Harry?" Mrs Weasley asked.
"He said they've been friends for several years," Nyssa answered.
"He's never mentioned it," Mrs Weasley said sounding slightly put out. Tegan suspected that there were probably a few things her sons kept from their over protective mother. Tegan could tell that just from the last 20 or 30 minutes or so of chatting to her about random general things.
Then the door opened and two boys came out onto the balcony. "Mum, dad's finally free, you told us to come and get you."
"Oh yes, thank you. I'll be just a moment," she said to them.
"Hello," said one of the twins.
"Hello," said the other.
Tegan eyed the twin boys who were grinning at them.
"So how do you two girls know young Mr Potter?" Asked one of them.
"You're not that old either," Tegan observed, taking a sip of her juice, she was beginning to appreciate it. Though hadn't yet decided if she liked it.
"Harry certainly never said he had such beautiful friends. Fred," said one.
"No he didn't George," the other said as he reached forward and poured two further cups of juice.
"Why don't you use a…wand, like you mother did?" Tegan asked.
"Can't, not outside of school, we're underage," they gave her an odd look "You're muggles aren't you?"
"Muggles?" Nyssa exchanged a look with Tegan who shrugged.
"Non-magic folk," explained George.
"Depends what you mean by 'not magic'," Tegan said mysteriously.
Then the door slammed open again, another red headed boy came out onto the progressively crowding balcony.
"Percy said there's something weird smelling in your room; he 'can't concentrate'," said the boy who seemed closer to Harry's age.
"Probably polishing his wand." Fred winked at Tegan who stared coolly at him as he stood up to leave, refusing to rise to his childish joke, or at least it would be if everyone around here didn't have wands.
"Excuse me ladies, I'm sure Ron can keep you entertained while we tend to what is making Percy's nose smell," said Fred.
-/
"Ron, are you a friend of Harry?" Nyssa asked after a moment.
"Yep, who're you?" He asked looking between them.
"We're friends of the Doctor, he's a friend of Harry," Tegan explained.
"Harry doesn't have any other friends," Ron said almost immediately then added. "Who's the Doctor?"
"I'm the Doctor." Tegan refused to jump, and managed just a slight twitch, how the Doctor managed to sneak up on them. "I think it's time for us to be off."
"So soon Doctor? I thought you wanted to talk with your friend?" Nyssa seemed surprised.
"I have Nyssa, places to be, people to see, people not to be seen by." He was already moving, walking around the side of the house to the front door.
Tegan pulled herself out of her chair and rolled her eyes at Nyssa who followed.
"I'll accompany you back to the ship," Harry said as he turned to follow them. "Ron, if anyone turns up just tell them I've gone to see a friend off."
"Harry what's going on?" Ron almost shouted at Harry as Harry walked briskly to join Tegan and Nyssa.
"What's the Doctor's rush? I thought you and he wanted to have a good chat," Tegan asked.
"The Doctor's done that. He said that I said something that…" Harry shook his head. "I've seen him a couple of times in different regenerations and it's still confusing."
"You know about regeneration?" Nyssa asked curiously. Harry nodded.
"Told me about it the first or second time we met, some how when we first met I knew there was something…strange about him." Harry shook his head. "Anyway, when I next meet him I'll tell him that Mrs Weasly will have worked herself up and got Mr Weasley here, probably to ask me questions, I know the Doctor doesn't share things easily. He muttered something about a self-fulfilling paradox and wanted to rush off."
"He doesn't like to share things about his past with everyone." Nyssa said as they walked slowly down the hill, the Doctor was already at the TARDIS waiting with the door open.
"So how'd you two get travelling with him?" Harry asked curiously.
"We're not the first people you've asked that of have you?" Nyssa queried.
"Nope," Harry shook his head. "But it's always interesting."
"Thought it was a real police box. Then he kidnapped me," Tegan said casually.
"You're enjoying it though?" Tegan nodded to Harry's question. "It's not the first time he's done it."
Tegan looked at him. "What?"
"Kidnap people, first people I met when I was in school he'd kidnapped. They seemed to be enjoying it too," Harry explained.
"I knew it," she said as they reached the TARDIS.
"Come on, come on." The Doctor stood at the TARDIS's edge waving them in.
"It was really nice meeting you Harry." Nyssa hugged him and then went quickly into the TARDIS.
"Was it something I said?" Harry looked to Tegan.
"No, just…how she came to travel with us…Harry we'll have to catch up again whenever the Doctor drops me off, when he's finished kidnapping me." Tegan said quickly, looking to the Doctor.
"What? I've never kidnapped anyone!" The Doctor decried.
"That's not what Harry's said. Goodbye" she said shaking his hand. "You can tell he's itching to go," she whispered to him.
"Well, Harry, good luck with the year," the Doctor said slightly breathlessly.
"Still no hints Doctor?" Harry pushed.
"No…none that I remember well enough. Just…remember your abilities and try not to get hurt," he said with a smile and a hug.
"Till next time then," Harry said.
"Yes," the Doctor nodded and stepped in and shut the door.
Harry stood there and watched as the noise of the TARDIS filled the hillside around him and the TARDIS disappeared from area in front of him, leaving only an impression in the grass of a square.
Then rushing down the hill was Mr and Mrs Weasley wands in hand, Harry smiled to himself, the Doctor had been a little vague, but obviously he was going to get a grilling over having a chat with an old friend.
-/ - \\-
"So who was that bloke Harry?" Ron whined at him again. Harry closed his eyes and put down the book he was trying to read. Ron had said it was weird to read about murders, even fictional ones. Harry rather liked Agatha Christie, he wondered if the Doctor had ever met her, he was always going on about people he'd met; Horatio Nelson, Napoleon, Barbara had pretended to be an Aztec goddess, he wondered what had happened to Tegan, or more to the point what had happened to Nyssa to start travelling with the Doctor.
"He's a friend, just as I told your mum and dad, he's a friend I've known since I was in primary school," he explained again.
"Who just turns up and was able to find the Burrow, without you having sent out any owls or anything, it's a bit weird Harry," Ron said.
"The Doctor's a pretty weird guy Ron, all things considered," Harry said the last part mostly to himself.
"But Harry…" Ron began again.
"Ron let's get some sleep, no doubt you can get Hermione to annoy me tomorrow," Harry muttered as he blew the candle out.
-/ - \\-
He gripped the rickety handrail up to the guests box. The humans around him were in long dark cloaks.
The wind here reminded him of some of the seasons on his home planet. While the Doctor couldn't escape their grasping hands, he had left their home behind, it would take more than their bleating voices to take him back. And certainly not the recall unit, that would only do to bring a large asteroid crashing onto the Citadel, it would serve them right. He wasn't some animal to be whipped and brought into line.
He looked into the air as the crowd began to cheer, there appeared to be a chance of rain.
As the players kicked off, he had to admit to himself, quietly there was something curious about the motion of these people, the quick movements, their method of moving, completely un-reliant on any technology.
He'd come partly out of curiosity, and partly to see him play, since he'd found out he was playing this 'sport'. His skills based in observation and quick movement.
Something the blond boy did not have, he seemed determined to throw puerile insults to the young man he had come to watch.
He watched as they stopped the match, the balls around them becoming stationary. He stretched his gloves against the railing as the skies darkened and rain it seemed was aching to break forth.
As they resumed play he studied the movement of the balls, whose purpose was only to seemingly disrupt the players, and give the two red headed boys something to hit.
But the young man, his darting eyes, unrestrained by glasses, something the Doctor was responsible for, something of benefit to the young man. The rain seemed to be having little affect on him.
The Master watched and realised, perhaps at the same moment as Harry Potter, the man he had come to watch realised that one of the projectiles was heading for him.
He was impressed at the young man's ability to focus on the task, not considering the pain of quite clearly a broken arm, focusing instead on his goal.
The Master appreciated that quality in a person, he had to give the Doctor that he was a worthy adversary, at times. Just as Harry would be to whomever foes he faced.
Flying toward the blond child was a move that made the Master smile, using your enemy to distract the greater problem, another move that showed the young man's skills in tactical thought.
The Master was moving before the young man he was watching hit the ground.
"Ah, we've won." Harry Potter said looking around.
The Master reached Harry Potter, just as the cretin Lockhart was boasting to the assembled masses of students around. The Master fingered his weapon, stowed inside a pocket.
"Oh no, not you," Harry said looking at Lockhart, the Master had to smile at the contempt Harry had for the man.
"Doesn't know what he's saying," Lockhart boasted again to the crowd.
"I think he knows perfectly well what he's saying." The Master stepped forward, grabbing the collected crowd's eye with one movement around him. "You are all concerned about Harry Potter. You will all obey me." He looked around, watching each of the students. Controlling such a large group was difficult, but in their adrenalin fuelled state their biochemistry hyper stimulated from their sport made them particularly susceptible, if their concerns were manipulated.
There was a murmur amongst them, though not Lockhart who seemed to be drooling.
"You will return to your change rooms, Harry Potter was taken to the hospital wing, you will obey me…obey me…now go." He snapped a gloved hand. Lockhart was still standing there. Harry appeared to be on the verge of blacking out once more. He bent down and picked up the boy, as he passed Lockhart, punched him, hard.
Physical violence was such a…mortal method, but sometimes it was exhilarating, as he had told the Doctor at least once. This time, just watching the man fall into the mud, slopping over a coat he doubted even the Doctor could wear, he found it quite satisfying.
-/
Harry blinked and looked around, he was in darkened room. In the centre of the room was a hexagonal console.
"Mr Potter, you're awake."
"Magister!" Harry rose, but Magister pushed him down gently.
"The arm will be sore for some days, but at least you still have it, Rassilon knows not what the man would have done to you," he said with distaste.
Harry nodded looking around. The Doctor had told him about what his TARDIS looked like, but this was the first time he'd seen the interior of one.
-/
Harry wasn't sure how long had passed, but at some point the Magister guided him out of what looked like a medical cabinet on the outside and into the hospital wing, where he waited for the team to return rushing in, followed by Professor McGonagall and a very muddy Lockhart.
Harry had to think fast as to how he was A) dry, and B) his arm had healed, save for some ache in his limbs. Though throughout his explanation which when he reflected back later that night had been about pain induced hyper-motion and spontaneous magical healing, phrases he was sure he'd either heard Hermione say once or he'd just made up, but throughout it all he could swear he could see Lockhart eyeing him, almost dangerously.
-/ - \\-
Harry looked at Fawkes, offering himself to them to lift them out, he cringed again as he moved his strained and possibly broken arm, the strain of stabbing the basilisk or some other point during his encounter with Riddle must have broken it.
In a different place he thought grimly to himself, he'd broken it in a different location to when he'd broken it in Quidditch. That was something to be thankful for.
This was despite Fawke's healing tears that seemed to have prevented the lethal Basilisk venom from killing him, or the open wound from bleeding out, but still left him with several injuries.
Looking over at Ginny, she was leaning heavily on Ron, exhausted by her near death possession by Riddle.
"He looks like he wants you to grab hold…but you're much too heavy for a bird to pull up there." Ron began perplexed.
"Fawkes isn't an ordinary bird," Harry paused gingerly pulling his scarf off as he began to think and to let him stretch his neck. In doing so he rubbed the fabric between his fingers. "Tinclavic…" He murmured to himself a smile forming on his lips as he tied a hard knot in it forming a loop so he and Ginny could put it under their arms.
"What are you doing Harry, can't we just hang off your robes?" Ron asked, pulling gently on his robes as he looked over at the mindless Lockhard. Harry winced and drew in a rough breath and wondered if one of his cracked ribs had punctured a lung, Magister had said he should read up and know what these things felt like, should he get into life threatening situations.
"No," Harry bit out coughing and spat a wad of blood and phlegm onto the rock beside them and then cleared his throat. "If you did that I think my arm may break a little bit more." He said with an odd smile. How long did an adrenalin rush last for? He wondered to himself.
"Oh," Ron squeaked.
Soon they'd all got attached or were hanging off his scarf that wasn't an ordinary scarf and they were flying away. Lockhart babbling next to Ron, Harry grit his teeth both trying to ignore Lockhart whom he imagined if he hadn't been trying to block out the rising pain and keep a grip on his scarf he might have had more than words to throw at the mindless professor.
-/ - \\-
Harry thought Fawkes was leading them to the Hospital wing, but no, he thought with a cringe, it was Professor McGonagall's office.
"Ginny!"
Mrs Weasley was about to sweep him into an embrace when Dumbledore, whom Harry thought had been standing by the mantelpiece when he'd walked in strode up to him.
"Fawkes wasn't entirely successful in your healing Harry?" The headmaster asked.
"Just a sprain, or near break, and my ribs I think one or two are cracked," Harry wheezed out. Dumbledore regarded him curiously and waved his wand over him, for a moment he was bathed in a golden glow. "A little trick Madam Pomfrey will probably not approve of. You will be sore for several days alas," he said quietly to him.
Harry nodded, everything still felt like it had a few moments before, except he was relatively sure he wasn't going to cough up any more blood and there wasn't the immense stabbing pain in his chest whenever he moved.
No one seemed to have noticed his and Dumbledore's brief exchange.
"You saved her! You saved her! How did you do that?" Mrs Weasley was still in a panic.
"I think we'd all like to know that." Professor McGonagall asked weakly.
Bolstered by a hot mug of tea Dumbledore had passed him Harry began to explain.
-/ - \\-
A/N:
The sequence with the Master wasn't originally in this chapter. But this chapter felt like it needed another visit from the Master, to bring through some of the ideas introduced in the previous chapters.
There was also, in an early draft of this chapter a different scene involving the Master and Harry. I actually got through with writing a large amount of it. Which involved re-writing major chunks of the CoS. Not something I ever intended to do, it would have meant really big changes for Harry. After writing it, it just didn't feel like the sorts of things that I wanted happening, so I went back and wrote this chapter again for the most part.
I prefer having snapshots into or before and after Harry's adventures in each of the books, it's for one less re-writing and secondly easier to write where I have more freedom to write and muck around with the settings and characters and everything. I have confidence you as readers know the source material well enough to extrapolate how things might go.
The final sequence with Harry, Ginny, Ron and Lockhart was again something that didn't exist when I finished the chapter, but in planning the next chapter or two certain things will be a bit more gritty and this last section existed in some of my plans, but I didn't get around to writing it until the last moment.
Thanks for reading.
